If awards season ended with the National Board of Review Gala, Manchester by the Sea would be the most celebrated film of the year. The heavily lauded Kenneth Lonergan drama ruled the event, which took place Wednesday at Cipriani in New York City. Twenty-year-old Lucas Hedges picked up one of the first awards of the night, for breakthrough performance, winning everyone over with his youthful exuberance and bubbly acceptance speech (after being introduced by a delighted Greta Gerwig). The actress told a funny anecdote about taking the young star to see The Crucible on Broadway earlier this year; Hedges had never read the play or seen the film adaptation, but ended up loving the theater version.

“I felt like Richard Gere in Pretty Woman taking Julia Roberts to the opera for the first time,” she said. “Goddamn, does that prostitute love opera!”

The gala—hosted by Willie Geist and attended by stars like Casey Affleck, Octavia Spencer, Martin Scorsese, Adam Driver, Jeff Bridges, Amy Adams, Mark Wahlberg, and more—eventually went full circle, with Lonergan accepting the final award of the night for best film. He delivered a lengthy speech about how art can inspire during this turbulent political era—an obvious nod at Donald Trump—and showed deep gratitude for another pair of standout films: O.J.: Made in America (which Lonergan said he could have watched “for 21 hours”) and La La Land, a film almost completely ignored by the N.B.R., though it was named one of the best films of the year.

“We are living in very troubled times, and how troubled they are, we don't know yet,” Lonergan said. He praised the way O.J. showed multiple viewpoints, creating an example by which we can “approach the next four years—hopefully only four years.”

“There are marginalized people, we don't know how many, really, who have helped create this situation,” he said. “There are people now who feel seriously marginalized; they're not being taken seriously. We have to stop de-marginalizing each other, de-humanizing each other, generalizing about each other.”

Trump was never mentioned by name in many acceptance speeches, but he was heavily alluded to a few times throughout the glittering night. Barry Jenkins, who accepted an award for best director for Moonlight (presented by close friend Ta-Nehisi Coates), made a point to use Trump's “Make America Great Again” slogan multiple times in his speech.

“The world is changing, and we're trying to 'make America great again,' ” he said, to cheers and laughs. “I'm going to take this honor as a symbol of being considered . . . as we 'make America great again,' let's remember some considerable things in our legacy, because there was a time when someone like me just was not considered.”

Naomie Harris and Screenwriter and Barry Jenkins.

By Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images.

Seth Meyers, who was on hand to present an award to O.J. filmmaker Ezra Edelman, delivered the funniest remarks of the night regarding Trump. He began by praising the N.B.R. for announcing prize winners ahead of time, providing a somewhat stress-free night for stars involved: “I hope that is just the tone of 2017, is that we know outcomes in advance—because if learned anything from 2016, it's very traumatic to find out who won a thing the night of.”

There was something cathartic in his comments, and his speech served as a sort of mini-appetizer to what we could have expected if he were hosting this Sunday's Golden Globes. (Alas, that duty has been left to his far less political NBC colleague, Jimmy Fallon.)

Some other laughs throughout the night came courtesy of Peter Berg, accepting a Spotlight Award with Wahlberg. “Our next film? Mark’s actually directing me in a remake of Last Tango in Paris,” he said—a joke that played well in the room, even though it made light of the recent controversy surrounding that film. Wahlberg lobbed a retort during his portion of the speech: “We aren’t going to cast a young starlet. It’s gonna be age-appropriate casting—I’m gonna cast my mom.”

Casey Affleck was also a favorite in the room, making the crowd laugh through a self-deprecating, last-minute speech as he presented Lonergan with a best-original-screenplay award. “Because he's such a good writer, I can sort of hear him rewriting my remarks as I say them and giving me direction and just generally being unhappy with everything that's happening,” Affleck said to a chuckling audience.

The N.B.R. Gala was like a perfect bubble of Affleck praise, with no mentions of or audible concern about his history of alleged sexual harassment, which might threaten his awards-circuit ascendancy. Affleck was greeted warmly both times he appeared onstage, first to present to Lonergan, then to accept the award for best actor, profusely thanking his presenter, Edie Falco—who also delivered a lush, praise-filled speech about Affleck's performance.

The actor reflected on the last time he attended the N.B.R. Gala, accepting a best-supporting-actor award for 2007's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Director Andrew Dominik was supposed to present him his prize that night, but he was battling some intense stage fright.

“Andrew Dominik almost died in front of you,” Affleck recalled to audience laughter. “He didn't say one word. It was the longest 60 seconds. You could see his mouth drying up.”

Amy Adams, who accepted the best-actress award for her work in Arrival, was also one of the crowd's favorite stars. The perennial Oscar nominee (who is, by all accounts, definitely the new Leonardo DiCaprio) gave a sweet, gratitude-filled speech that reflected on her youthful dreams about coming to New York City while she was a young girl growing up in Colorado. “I could have never predicted that I would be here tonight in this amazing room,” Adams said, later putting on a charmingly thick French accept to praise director Denis Villeneuve and the rest of the Arrival crew.

Amy Adams.

By Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images.

Another crowd favorite was Jeff Bridges, who was name-checked throughout the night in speeches by Meyers (“Fuck [being] 20—I wanna be Jeff”) and Edelman. Like Lonergan and Jenkins, he delivered a political speech—punctuated with “man” and various Dude-like inflections—while accepting his award for best supporting actor for Hell or High Water. He thanked the N.B.R. and his Hell collaborators, but ended his speech by praising the Dakota Access Pipeline protesters at Standing Rock. “They're looking out not only for their own interests, but for all of our interests, making sure we're living in a healthy planet,” he said. “I support them and I applaud them and I accept this award on their behalf. We're all in this together.”

Correction: This article has been updated to more accurately reflect the allegations against Casey Affleck, which were made in two civil suits in 2010 that were later settled.